3 visuals for webpage
This code will help produce the three visuals that are going to be a
part of each equity tracker indicator webpage: regional map (tract
level) of most recent data, chart of the most recent data, chart of
trends over time.
If the indicator is a PUMS/OPSI indicator that can be accessed
through Elmer. Getting the data to a workable version may
require some data transformation. To explore, clean, transform, and
generate a final data set, please use the
data-gen-pums-template. This script will generate an .rda for
the map and an .rda for the charts. These data sets will be loaded in
before the data visualization code.
Indicator Explanation
[Please include the following for a general, layperson audience: 1-2
sentences explaining what your indicator is/measures, what it says about
people’s life outcomes; 1 sentence describing why it is useful/relevant
in the indicator’s theme]
1. Map of most recent data
To map data in this form, it requires accessing data at the
regional/tract level from ACS since the Elmer data set is already
aggregated to equity group/quintile.
Create Visual
Source(s): U.S. Census Bureau, 2018-2022 American Community Survey
5-Year Estimates, Table S2201; U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division
2020 TIGER/Line Shapefiles
- 9.0%: The region’s average SNAP participation
- 49.4%: The highest average SNAP participation at the census tract
level in the region
Insights & Analysis
- King County has the lowest average for SNAP participation (8.0%),
followed by Snohomish (8.8%), Kitsap (10.0%), and Pierce (11.7%).
- There are 38 census tracts with no SNAP participation with 30 tracts
in King County, two in Kitsap, two in Pierce, and four in
Snohomish.
- The four census tracts with the highest participation include one
tract in the Eastside neighborhood of Tacoma (49.4%), Downtown Tacoma
(44.1%), southeast Des Moines (39.3%), and southeast Kent (35.8%).
- The national average SNAP participation is 11.5%.
2. Facet of most recent data
Create Visual
SNAP Participation by Community
Percent of households participating in SNAP
U.S. Census Bureau, 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Public
Use Microdata Sample
Data call outs
As a region:
- 3.5X: People with a disability are 3.5 times more likely to
participate in SNAP
Insights & Analysis
- In King County, households with limited English proficiency are more
than three times as likely to participate in SNAP.
- As a region, 32% of households with lower income participate in
SNAP, leaving room for increased participation.
- SNAP uses an income threshold of 200% of the federal poverty level
for qualification, the same definition used here to identify households
with lower income.
- 4% of non-lower income households in the region reported
participating in SNAP, which is likely a data anomaly due to how the
Census Bureau asks about household income.
- Households with limited English proficiency are over twice as likely
to participate in SNAP.
- People of color are almost twice as likely to participate in
SNAP.
3. Facet of trend data
Create Visual
SNAP Participation Trend by Community
Percent of households participating in SNAP
U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012, 2013-2017, 2018-2022 American Community
Survey 5-Year Public Use Microdata Sample
Insights & Analysis
- Regionally, people of color have consistently been almost twice as
likely to participate in SNAP compared to the white non-Hispanic
population; however, the disparity between these two groups decreased in
all counties - Snohomish (-50%), King (-40%), Kitsap (-33%), Pierce
(-22%).
- SNAP participation decreased in all counties for households with
limited English proficiency between 2012 and 2022, except for Pierce
County where participation for the same group increased from 21% in 2012
to 23% in 2022.
- SNAP participation among people with disabilities in the region
either stayed the same (Kitsap and Pierce counties) or decreased (King
and Snohomish counties) from 2012 to 2022.
- The share of participating lower income households reached 40% in
2017, the highest for any group in the past decade; however, between
2012 and 2022, there was a three percentage point decrease in SNAP
participation for households with lower income across the region